Terror in Spain

Audio 3:34
Abbott confident, despite last-minute blip

Naomi WoodleyUpdated
Fri 6 Sep 2013, 2:02 PM AEST

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has begun the final day of the election campaign in Melbourne, touring a guitar factory. The Coalition may have hit a wrong note with the confusion over its internet filtering policy, but it remains well ahead in all opinion polls, and Mr Abbott is sounding increasingly confident about his chances tomorrow night.

Transcript

SCOTT BEVAN: The Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has begun the final day of the election campaign in Melbourne, touring a guitar factory.

The Coalition may have hit a bum note with the confusion over its internet filtering policy, but it's well ahead in all opinion polls, and Mr Abbott is sounding increasingly confident about his chances tomorrow night.

Our reporter, Naomi Woodley is travelling with Mr Abbott, and she joined me a short time ago.

Naomi, first to the internet policy, and a pretty controlled campaign. It's been rather embarrassing for the Coalition. What's Mr Abbott had to say about it?

NAOMI WOODLEY: Well Scott last night he told us he had signed off on that original document, and then admitted it was poorly worded but nothing more than that. He's stressed again and again, last night and again this morning, this has never been Coalition policy to have an internet filter.

He couldn't really explain why both Paul Fletcher and to a lesser extent Malcolm Turnbull were defending the initial policy before it was taken down and replaced last night. But Mr Abbott says the swiftness with which the Coalition dealt with the problem shows the approach that it would take in government.

Let's have a listen to what he said this morning.

TONY ABBOTT: Obviously there was a failure of quality control. As soon as that was realised, it was fixed. Now I'm happy to take full responsibility, happy to take full personal responsibility for every mistake that the Coalition makes, and frankly that's what adult government is all about.

The buck will stop with me.

SCOTT BEVAN: Tony Abbott there. And our reporter Naomi Woodley is travelling with the Opposition Leader. Final days of the campaign, Naomi, and it seems that Mr Abbott is stepping up his campaign for the Coalition to not only win but win strongly tomorrow night.

What's been his message to voters today?

NAOMI WOODLEY: Yeah look he's certainly been shifting his focus in the past few days, with most of the opinion polls showing that there is a growing support base for those small parties like the Palmer Party, Clive Palmer's party.

Mr Abbott's really sort of sharpened his attack in that direction rather than simply on Labor. He's calling these parties, micro parties. Tony Abbott's message today has been people should vote for a major party, even if that means Labor over the minor parties.

So let's have a listen to how he's described these minor parties today.

TONY ABBOTT: The danger as we go into the last hours of this campaign is that people will dilly-dally with independents and minor party candidates. Sure, they might be fun, sure they might be different, but they will damage our country and damage our government if they play the same role in the next parliament that they played in the last parliament.

SCOTT BEVAN: Tony Abbott once again there. And Naomi, many are expecting a Coalition victory. Has Mr Abbott still tried to keep a lid of sorts on those expectations?

NAOMI WOODLEY: Of sorts, but it is getting harder I think, and we saw again today a very confident Tony Abbott. He was asked what his approach would be next week if the Coalition does win, as you say, as it's expected to do on Saturday.

And in quite a lengthy answer, he abandoned his usual caveat of 'if we win', he just simply talked about prime ministers growing into the role, he talked about how John Howard did that and that would be something that he would try to emulate.

But as you say, expectations and anticipation really has been quite strong this week within the Coalition camp, they're looking very confident and we saw that again today.

SCOTT BEVAN: That is Naomi Woodley travelling with the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott.